In a lengthy statement, former President Barack Obama lamented the decision by his successor in the White House to end a program that protected young undocumented immigrants, casting it as a "political decision."

Earlier on Tuesday, President Donald Trump's administration announced it would rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Obama implemented by executive action in 2012. DACA gives undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. before they were 16 the opportunity remain in the country for school or work, as long as they meet the program's conditions.

Advertisement

Related Content

"To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong," Obama said in his statement. "It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even speak?"

Obama, who admitted upon its start that DACA was a "temporary" measure and may have pushed the limit of his executive powers, said he enacted it because of Congress' inability to pass a bill to protect young immigrants. A piece of legislation aimed at that goal, the Dream Act, has surfaced multiple times since being introduced in the Senate in 2001, and a bipartisan effort from Sens. Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin is bringing forward the bill again.

Obama said his administration enacted DACA "based on the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike." That, however, didn't stop from critics calling the program a case of executive overreach, leading to a group of state attorneys general threatening legal action against the current White House if the program wasn't ended.

Tuesday's decision will begin a phase-out of the program, with the Department of Homeland Security no longer accepting new applications. Renewals will be accepted over the next month for anyone whose status will expire by March 5, 2018. According to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, nearly 800,000 renewals have been approved since DACA was implemented in 2012.

"Ultimately, this is about basic decency," Obama said. "This is about whether we are a people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated. It’s about who we are as a people – and who we want to be."